Welcome from David Hoose

This Cantata Singers season, the fifty-fourth, offers a rich confluence of unfamiliar treasures and seminal works that always reward with more exploration. The more familiar music includes Beethoven’s immense Missa solemnis, Bach’s multi-faceted Cantata BWV 21, Pärt’s magnetic Berliner Messe, and Schoenberg’s last completed composition, his impassioned, searing setting of Psalm 130. For how many organizations might this Schoenberg work be considered familiar? That it is to us suggests Cantata Singers’ adventurous and inquisitive—and perhaps by some standards unusual—musical personality. And it reflects our devoted listeners who come year after year to listen with eager ears and open hearts; such engagement brings immense reward to everyone.

Much of this season also unveils music we have never performed—Bach’s resolute cantata “Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein” (Ah God, look down from heaven), the 16th-century Tomás Luis de Victoria’s sublime requiem setting, a brand-new composition on verses from Lamentations by Peter Child (Cantata Singers’ latest commission), an unusual Haydn symphony (but aren’t they all?), amazingly mature music by the 19-year old Mozart, and Zelenka’s most luminous mass setting. Along with an atypical Christmas program—Chadwick and Bax!—and the revealing concerts of Allison Voth’s Chamber Series, this year promises exceptional riches.

I can think of no more satisfying a way to celebrate my thirty-fifth year as music director of this indispensable organization than to share this resplendent music with you. I hope you’ll get to hear it all.